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| Contents | ||
| Swifts | ||||||||||
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Chimney Swift | ||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
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| Genera | ||||||||||
| Many: see text | ||||||||||
| See also: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) |
The swifts are the most aerial of birds and some, like the Common Swift, even sleep and mate on the wing.
One group, the Swiftlets or Cave Swiftlets have even developed a form of echolocation for navigating through dark cave systems where they roost.
They are superficially similar to swallows but are completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they formerly shared with the hummingbirds.
The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.
The family scientific name comes from the GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce απους, apous, meaning "without feet". These birds have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, perching instead on vertical surfaces.
Like swallows and martins, the swifts of temperate regions are strongly migratoryLong-distance land bird migration Many species of land birds migrate very long distances, the most common pattern being for birds to breed in the temperate or arctic northern hemisphere and winter in warmer regions, often in the tropics or the southern he and winter in the tropics.
Many swifts have a characteristic shape, with a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerangA boomerang is a curved, usually wooden, device which is thrown. A boomerang spins as it flies through the air, and can travel long distances. A boomerang is designed to, when thrown correctly, fly a curved path to return to the person who threw it. To bo. The flight is characterised by a distinctive "flicking" action quite different from swallows.
The nest is glued to a vertical surface with saliva, and the genus Aerodramus use only that substance, which is the basis for bird's nest soup.
In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomyThe Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical new approach to bird taxonomy based on DNA studies which gives an arrangement differing greatly from the more traditional approach used in list of birds. The major changes at order level are as follows; Enlarged S, the old order Apodiformes is split. Swifts remain in that order, but hummingbirds are put into a new order, Trochiliformes.
The taxonomy of this group is in general complicated, with genus and species boundaries widely disputed, especially amongst the swiftlets.
The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family.